Brighton TRAs bullying female small business owner

[SapphosRock]

Urgh. This is happening in my home town and it’s shit.

Happy Maki is a small, vegan cafe and takeaway. It’s a very ethical business. All about sustainability and green energy. They plant a tree and feed a child for each wrap made. It’s a gift economy and the food is free with a suggested donation. All very hippy. You get the idea.

A FTM trans person approached the female owner of Happy Maki and asked for support in fundraising for their top surgery. I believe they wanted a poster in the window asking for money. The owner refused. When pressed the owner said it was against her religious beliefs - she is a follower of the Divine Truth which admittedly sounds a bit ‘out there’ but not entirely unexpected given the nature of her business.

Anyway the TRAs have really gone to town and are posting in every Brighton based Facebook group, Instagram and Twitter accusing the owner of Transphobia and calling for her to apologise:

twitter.com/makiunhappy/status/1314261939833446400?s=21

They seem to be getting a lot of support and gaining a lot of traction too with many saying they are now going to boycott the business.

I’m upset about this for a lot of reasons. Obviously the female owner being bullied and harassed in this way and them encouraging people to email her. The lovely takeaway losing business. It’s also pretty tone deaf to attack the hospitality sector in the midst of a global pandemic for not supporting one individual’s elective, life changing surgery.

Anyway, the reason I’m posting here is in solidarity with the owner Anna. And if any of you lovely lot are nearby then consider getting a Happy Maki takeaway. The food is delicious and I’m sure they could do with some support right now.

www.happymaki.co.uk

And see Labour shadow cabinet member Rachel Reeves rabbit-caught-in-headlights expression when asked about this yesterday on GMB. Terrified. Absolutely terrified. By her own policies and 'allies'.

@WatchTooMuchBelowDeck

In my world the conversation would go

hi can I put up this poster?
Sorry, no I'd rather you didn't
Aw ok, no worries. Can I have a brownie to take away?
Yeah - have it on the house since I couldn't help with the poster thing

Everyone hugs it out

I want to live in that world.

Although not Germany, the whole of which is potentially transphobic according to Fizz

It was more can I put up a poster No, because I don't think your condition is authentic and I think your thoughts are being manipulated by evil spirits.

She didn't have to say that, she could have just said no. Neither did she have to inflict her batshit views about bisexual people on the people who work for her. Why should workers, who might be bisexual themselves, put up with that, alongside not giving people proper contracts and messing them about with sick and holiday pay. The workers are absolutely right to take action if they are unhappy and I think they deserve the local support. It's time to stand up to these dubious new age small business owners who think because their business is a bit shanti shanti then that exempts them from treating their staff properly. I've seen too many examples of it, good on the workers for taking a stand.

@EvenSupposing

This and the GMB have finally pushed me over the fucking edge I think. Not sure what I will find over here but it's going to involve a shit load of being angry and maybe some stickers...

I can relate. I'm not quite at the sticker stage yet but I'm very fucking angry.

Oh look - jj1968 has found yet another woman to criticise!

@SapphosRock
Would you be happy if your boss decided to treat you to their batshit theories about your sexuality or gender in the workplace? It's utterly unacceptable behaviour for an employer and it's a real shame those workers didn't have trade union support to stop this kind of thing without having to lose their jobs, and even better to fight and strike if necessary for proper contracts.

@persistentwoman

Oh look - jj1968 has found yet another woman to criticise!

Her sex is irrelevent, her role as an employer is not.

It's not the fucking Jarrow march is it? It's just being a cunt to someone on the internet.

@EvenSupposing

It's not the fucking Jarrow march is it? It's just being a cunt to someone on the internet.

Would you support a boss making racist remarks in the workplace, or being homophobic to customers? Why should bisexual and trans people be treated any worse?

And no it's not the Jarrow March, but the more workers stand up to bosses who won't give them proper contracts, and mess them about with pay, the better.

And anyone who accuses me of exaggeration can fuck right off. 5 years ago, I was warning (along with many other GC women) that women would end up being raped in prison and pushed out of sports teams if single sex protections were eroded. We were told we were ridiculous, hysterical, pearl-clutchers. Literally everything we predicted (and more) has now happened.

Yup, I spotted this coming years off and was told I was catastrophising.

Bollocks jj. Stop dressing this up as anything other than a fucking witch hunt.

And piss off appropriating the Trades Union movement as well. Brave men and women died for that and they didn't do it so some navel gazing wanker could fund having their perfectly healthy breasts cut off.

It was more can I put up a poster
No, because I don't think your condition is authentic and I think your thoughts are being manipulated by evil spirits.

So what??!!! Grow up - we all have different views. We are allowed to reject the views of others. We are not required to validate the views of others.

My boss is a committed Catholic - which includes Church teaching that my non-baptised children will burn in hell for all eternity.

Somehow I manage to get through the day...

Neither did she have to inflict her batshit views about bisexual people on the people who work for her.

If you want to criticise employers for inflicting batshittery views on their staff, perhaps you could start with those that have been Stonewalled.

RFU would be a good start...

The owner should have protection under the 2010 Equalities Act due to her sex and religious beliefs.

I came on to say this. It's a clear case of harassment so a crime and given it stems from her religious beliefs it's a hate crime. I sincerely hope she goes to the police and they prosecute. Although from what I've heard about the local police there I don't hold out a great deal of hope.

[quote jj1968]@SapphosRock
Would you be happy if your boss decided to treat you to their batshit theories about your sexuality or gender in the workplace? It's utterly unacceptable behaviour for an employer and it's a real shame those workers didn't have trade union support to stop this kind of thing without having to lose their jobs, and even better to fight and strike if necessary for proper contracts.[/quote]
@jj1968 if I approached my employer asking them to help me fund my elective surgery I would fully expect them to tell me to jog on.

The individual in question wasn't even employed by Happy Maki.

The email exchange they had was in February.

It's unrealistic and very narcissistic to force your employer to abandon their religious beliefs so they align with your own world view. I am gay and if I chose to work for a devout Christian I wouldn't expect them to change their thinking to accommodate me.

My boss is a committed Catholic - which includes Church teaching that my non-baptised children will burn in hell for all eternity.

Well if your boss refused to provide a service to a gay customer that they apparantly provide to others and justifies it by saying sorry but I think your thoughts are being possessed by demons thats all cool is it?

It sounds an absolutely awful place to work, and I very much doubt anyway would be supporting her if it wasn't yet another chance to attempt to own the trans. Genuinely troubling that biphobia and treating workers like crap is now defendable if someone is sufficiently anti-trans.

Nope jj1968
You're all over this threads on this board taking any opportunity to slur individual women and women's groups with baseless accusations. You are of course entitled to do so (free speech and all that) but we are entitled to point out how this particular brand of woman hatred manifests itself on this board.

jj1968
Have you actually read the account the owner posted on her website blog. It includes a copy of the email she said to the person who was asking other people to fund their surgery. It’s worth a read as it doesn’t tally with what you are accusing her of.
But regardless, there are lots of people who have religious beliefs I don’t agree with. What I don’t do is try to run down their livelihood and start a witch-hunt.
This is misogyny pure and simple and it stinks.

Sorry long thread and some confusing arguments.

1. I don’t think I have ever seen a Gofundme type poster in any cafe window.

1. Are other cafes in the area displaying the poster? Before the fuss? Afterwards, through fear of similar treatment?

If the answer is no and no, this is bullying.

Pity I don’t live in Brighton. I would love to invite Sappho out for lunch and can think of the ideal place. We would probably disagree on everything, bar this. But the conversation would be polite and lively.

jj1968 - Neither did she have to inflict her batshit views

is Caitlyn Jenner's assertion that they were born with a 'woman's soul' batshit? or Layla Moran's belief that she can tell what a woman is - by looking at their soul? No of course not. Anyone suggesting such a thing would be in danger of a visit from the thought police.
Whatever this woman's belief she is a cafe owner and is under no obligation whatsoever to put up a poster asking people to fund someone's cosmetic surgery - far less have to face an interrogation squad justifying her decision. This nasty vile mob are not 'taking a stand'. They are vengefully trying to destroy someone's livelihood. They need to stop and take a good hard look at themselves.

Well if your boss refused to provide a service to a gay customer that they apparantly provide to others

Oh for fuck's actual sake.

Learn the difference between "service" and "favour."

And then learn that no one owes you any favours. Even if they do favours for other people! If 1968 is your year of birth you really should have figured this out by now.

Not going to bother researching the faith, but people have a right to their own religious beliefs and others have to do this thing called 'coping with that'. Doesn't sound like she's going around haranguing people about her beliefs unprompted.

If I asked a devout Catholic to let me put up a poster in her shop window for Marie Stopes, and then asked her why she was saying no, I would only have myself to blame when she answered my damn question.

Cope. Sometimes, when you ask questions about what people think, you'll get answers you don't like. They're not obliged to lie or to stop thinking things you don't like

Sea lions in Brighton....

I’m genuinely baffled that anyone thinks that when someone asks a business owner of they can put up a poster begging for money for a mastectomy for their healthy breasts to further indulge their gender woo & they get told very nicely - no you can’t that’s there’s an issue

The endless bratty bullying entitlement is beyond belief

I’m going to call round to the local butchers tomorrow and ask if I can put up a poster promoting veganism. If he disagrees, I’ll throw such a strop.

Is anyone going to address the biphobia?

She’s not biphobic- read her blog.

@Kit19

Sea lions in Brighton....

I’m genuinely baffled that anyone thinks that when someone asks a business owner of they can put up a poster begging for money for a mastectomy for their healthy breasts to further indulge their gender woo & they get told very nicely - no you can’t that’s there’s an issue

The endless bratty bullying entitlement is beyond belief

For some reason my crazed brain has come up with "Sea-lioning across the universe."

Both the entitled brat leading the witch hunt and the sealion are tedious beyond belief. Though the entitled brat is not merely tedious, they're downright dangerous, trying to take a woman's livelihood away from her.